Organizers: Charitable Foundation “Give Life to the Planet”, Federal State Budgetary Institution “Zapovednoe Pribaikalye”.

Dates: June 24 - July 1, 2019

Venue: along the route of two routes:

       - Buguldeyka village - Aya Bay, 

       - Sakhyurta - Aya Bay.

Project managers: Natalia Eremeeva, Vyazmin Vyacheslav.

Financing: “United Heineken Breweries”.

Partners:

       - LLC "Trade - Technical Company" Tour Auto

       - TV channel "AIST"

Number of participants: 16 people, including 2 researchers of the “Preserved Baikal”, 14 volunteers.

Targets and goals:

      - study of anthropogenic impact, including accounting and studying of waste             discovered by expedition members, marking the places of concentration of               tourists; 

       - conducting educational work among tourists in order to encourage them to             abide by the rules of staying in the Baikal National Park and separately                     dispose of solid household waste;

       - registration and observation of rare species of birds, reptiles, Red List                         animals and plants;

       - cleaning of contaminated coastal areas.

Actual Results:

       - length of routes 191.5 km: 127.3 km - crossings, 64.2 km - radial routes;

       - 9 bays were investigated;

       - 176 people were informed about the rules of conduct in specially protected               natural areas;

       - 44 cars were recorded;

       - 120 bags of garbage were collected and fishing nets - about 250 kg;

       - 4 trees are exempted from viscous.

Analytical results:

  1) The places of special concentration of the camps of unorganized tourism were          recorded and indicated on the map (Tutaiskiy Bay, Begul Bay, Aya Bay).

      Conclusions. It is extremely necessary to create infrastructure: installing                    information banners, arranging picnic areas, and regular monitoring.                        Information    banners should include the “Three Great and Simple Rules” of              conduct:

       - do not leave behind you any traces (except good ones): do not pick flowers,               do not leave fires, rubbish, nails in a tree, new roads, etc.);

       - take care of water: do not dispose of waste water, do not use phosphate                     products, do not use detergents in open water, etc .;

       - do not bother your neighbors: people, birds, fish, animals, ants, etc., do not               turn on the music, do not touch the nests, anthills, burrows, etc.

   2) For the most part, tourists surveyed do not have up-to-date information on               the rules for staying on the territory of the national park. Only 17% of                           vacationers had a residence permit, for the rest it is a time-consuming process.

       Conclusions. It is necessary to simplify the procedure for registering a stay in           the territory of the Baikal National Park.

   3) Most of the garbage collected during the expedition was fishing nets and                   glass bottles, from which it can follow that poachers and citizens who drink               alcohol rest on the sites covered.

      Conclusions. It is necessary to strengthen the patrolling of the territory by the          inspectors of the FSBI “Preserved Baikal”.

   4) In places that are considered sacred among tourists and local residents, trees are found tied with ribbons and knitwear.

      Conclusions. It is necessary to assemble a working group from representatives          of local peoples, biologists and employees of the Zapovednoe Pribaikalye,                  together to identify sacred places and rules of behavior there. For example, to          install special poles for tying ribbons and information plates that such strings          are harmful to trees.

   5) Most of the access roads are difficult to access, the bays are small, in places             of tourist congestion there are no municipalities nearby. On both routes, the             number of tourists met is several times less than their numbers on the territory         of the Small Sea. At the same time in the largest Aya bay was approximately 40         tourists (10 cars). In all other bays, from 2 to 5 cars and, correspondingly, the             same number of tourist groups, were seen at a time.

       Conclusions. When creating picnic areas, refuse containers should be                         discarded, as:

         - they are expensive to export;

         - during the accumulation of waste, the territory will be littered due to cattle i             nterference, careless people, wind;

        There is experience in maintaining the territories of national parks without                 installing containers for solid municipal waste. Informational banners are                 needed to explain the idea of "taking away easier than bringing."

    6) The bulk of the garbage collected during the expedition, by agreement, was              taken out by tourists, which indicates an increase in the level of                                    consciousness of citizens.

        Conclusions. It is required to conduct educational work with the population              year-round. Garbage containers should not be installed in the territory of the          Pribaikalsky National Park, investigated by the expedition in 2019.

     7) The composition of the waste collected and disposed of as a result of the                   expedition (depending on the volume in descending order):

            - fishing nets (plastic);

            - glass bottles for alcoholic beverages;

            - plastic bottles, packaging (plastic, combined (such as tetrapack));

            - plastic bags;

            - cans;

            - disposable tableware;

            - other types of household waste.

          Conclusions. More severe penalties for poaching are required, as well as                    explanatory work on the use of fishing nets in the form of full houses with                  photographs of the consequences. Consideration should be given to                          prohibiting the sale of plastic containers in coastal areas.

      8) Pseudo-sacred (4 points) and popular sacred places (2 points) were                              discovered, in the area of which garbage accumulates: whole and broken                  glass bottles, textiles and other wastes, colored ribbons tied to branches of              bushes and trees.

          Conclusions. It was recommended to assemble an expert group of                                representatives of NGOs, local residents, employees of the Federal State                    Budgetary Institution Zapovednoye Pribaikalye, biologists, followers of                        Shamanism and Buddhism to clarify the territory of sacred places and                      develop information boards with rules of behavior in such places without                  harming nature. Together with the tourism agency of the Irkutsk region, it is              necessary to develop memos for souvenir shops where they sell colored                      ribbons with recommendations for their use.

      9) During the expedition, the participants managed to see the Mongolian toad,            white heron, traces of bears, flocks of cormorants, capercaillie, roe deer,                      partridge, various species of orchids.

          Conclusions. Flora and fauna exist in the Baikal ecosystem without                              deterioration compared to previous studies in 2018.

List of participants in the Compass Baikal project:

   The members of the “South” team:

   The members of the “North” team:

Organizers: Charitable Foundation “Give Life to the Planet” with the support of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Zapovednoe Pribaikalye”

Duration: 06/15/2019 - 09/08/2019. The start of the project is 2016.

Venue - around Olkhon (Lake Baikal), ferry crossing MRS-Olkhon.

The number of raids - 12 (from 4 to 6 days)

Project managers: Artyom Makarov, Elena Pavlyuchenko.

Financing:

    - United Breweries Heineken;

    - The Presidential Grants Fund, within the framework of the project “Let's Save Baikal's Life”.

Partners:

- LLC "Trade - Technical Company" Tour Auto;

- Premier Media Sales House.

Number of volunteer participants: 50 people - representatives of the Irkutsk region, the city of St. Petersburg, Spain.

Objectives: outreach, including prevention of violations of the rules of staying in the national park and educating tourists for a comfortable stay in harmony with nature and local traditions.

Tasks:

    - conducting an environmental sociological survey;

    - informing tourists:

    - about environmental issues,

    - on the rules of conduct in specially protected natural areas,

    - on existing environmental projects, actions (selective waste collection at                    Olkhon;

    - motivation for the export of MSW from the island for “wild” tourists, informing            about selective collection on the island of Olkhon

    - distribution of information materials;

    - verification of the integrity of the Saray beach fence;

Results:

    - 3435 people passed an environmental sociological survey;

    - 66% of respondents are representatives of the Irkutsk region, 29% are                          representatives of other regions of Russia, 5% are representatives of foreign              states;

    - there has been a steady increase in the level of tourists' knowledge of the rules        of conduct in the territory of the Baikal National Park (in 2019, 80% of                            respondents, in 2018 - 70%, in 2017 - 64%);

    - a larger number of people in accordance with the need to control the                        movement of tourists in the national park (in 2019, 83% of respondents, in 2018 -          77%);

    - Some indicators either remained at the same level or worsened. We assume a            deterioration due to the appearance of tourists who have never been to                    Olkhon Island before. All data for 2019 and 2018 are presented in charts.